Opening Day, Allen Iverson, Practice, and Predictions

Finally! With Yankees Opening Day happening in just a few minutes, we're finally going to see real baseball. I must confess that I don't really get excited over watching spring training games. I don't think I watched more than a small amount of them this year. We're talking about practice, as Allen Iverson would say:



Anyhow, I guess I should do some predictions for the Yankees season. I'm not going to do like everybody else does, though, this year, with predicting standings, number of games won, etc. I will predict the following things, in a more quirky style:

* An angry Derek Jeter will be, um, "Driven" to have a great year, and prove the naysayers who think his best days are behind him wrong.

* Ian O'Connor will write at least three more stories about Jeter without mentioning his book about him. Then, when "The Captain" book comes out, ESPN New York will run an excerpt of the book!

* There will be at least four fallacious A-Rod/Cameron Diaz stories in the media. I will feel compelled to debunk at least two of them.

* Joba Chamberlain will be a nonfactor, and will get traded by July.

* As usual, A.J. Burnett will cause all sorts of mixed emotions in Yankeeland. Hoping it's more positive than negative!

I will probably come up with some more, but the game's about to start!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Stunner: Subway Squawkers Snubbed Again for Award

Given that this month marks the fifth anniversary of Subway Squawkers, I was hoping this would finally be the year we'd get recognized with some big ol' award. You know, like a Pulitzer, a MacArthur Genius Grant, something like that. No such luck so far. They announced this year's Peabody Awards today, and we were shut out again. This was my reaction:




On a happier note, while we might not be getting any awards, the Squawkers are featured in two different books. Jon and I are contributors to the Graphical Player 2011 book. And Jon's work is featured in the new Cambridge Companion to Baseball book. Jon and I will both be attending a signing event for the book tonight at Borders in Columbus Circle at 7 p.m. this evening. If you're in the city, and feel like stopping by to say hi, please do!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Guess What? There Are Still Yankees Opening Day Tickets Available!

What's going on in Yankeeland with the ticket market these days? It was shocking to me last year that I was able to get tickets for below face value on StubHub for Game 5 of the ALCS. Now I see in the Bergen Record that there are reasonably-priced tickets available on StubHub for Opening Day. I checked for myself, and sure enough, there are tickets starting at around $24 for grandstand seats.

And not only that, but the Yankees themselves still have tickets available for Opening Day, albeit the pricey seats. The Bergen Record article sez that "the Yankees’ own website was selling tickets at face value for the $350 Delta Sky 360 section and for the $625 Legends Suites section — the latter being the best seats in the house, right behind home plate." Wow! You'd think Opening Day would be a sellout, but apparently not -- yet!

I don't know what to make of this. Is this a sign that fans are not quite as psyched for this year's team than they were in previous years? I'm not sure, but I'm bummed I have something to do tomorrow morning, which will keep me from going to the game in person!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Baseball Book Talk and Signing Thursday

Leonard Cassuto, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Baseball, will talk about the book and sign copies at Borders Books at Columbus Circle on Thursday, March 31 at 7 pm. The book is a collection of essays on topics such as baseball in the movies and baseball in Japan and Latin America. Interspersed are features on iconic baseball characters such as Pete Rose and Walter O'Malley.

I contributed a piece on the origins of free agency, with the focus on Charlie Finley, George Steinbrenner and Andy Messersmith. It was a fascinating time in baseball and I had a great time researching and writing about it. Readers of this blog are quite familiar with Steinbrenner, but for those less familiar with Finley, the A's owner might have been an even more vivid character.

Hope to see some of you Thursday. If you can't make it to the Borders event, you can check out The Cambridge Companion to Baseball on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.

Media Runs A-Rod, Cameron Diaz Movie Story With Pretty Much No Evidence

I always laugh when I hear some pompous journalist tell that old cliche, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out," implying that people in his profession wear out shoe leather (another journalistic cliche) to get the story. Because, unfortunately, the reality is sometimes a lot less glorious, especially when it comes to Alex Rodriguez.

Remember how after the Super Bowl, pretty much every single media outlet pubished an anonymously-sourced story from the Chicago Sun-Times that A-Rod went "ballistic" after being filmed getting fed popcorn by Cameron Diaz at the Super Bowl? And that it turned out the Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker used that exact word, "ballistic," to anonymously describe a half-dozen other anonymous celebrity reactions (what a coincidence!)? And that it took until spring training for anybody to even ask Rodriguez about the incident, which he convincingly laughed off?

Anyhow, the UK tabloid the Daily Express is now claiming that Cameron Diaz wants to make a romantic comedy about baseball, and hopefully have A-Rod co-star in it. The article, written "by Daily Express Reporter" (now there's a name to hang a story by!) claims that Diaz has created a scheme for her to spend more time with who the paper calls the "distinctly average-looking" Rodriguez. From the article:

It appears the actress is crazy about the New York Yankees player, cooking up a new project involving him so they don’t have to be apart during the new baseball season.

"Cameron actually has an idea for a romantic comedy set around Major League Baseball," reports a source close to the actress.

She’s very excited about developing her own projects and the fact this one is about a baseball player means she has good reason to spend more time with A-Rod and the Yankees.

“She’s even thinking that Alex could star in the movie with her."

There are a few gaping problems with this story, as it's clear that the writer doesn't have a clue about how either Hollywood or the baseball season works:

* Diaz has never produced a movie. And most films take years to get developed and get made, so it's extremely unlikely that she would somehow have a romantic comedy about baseball ready to go for this season. Unless they're going to remake "Fever Pitch" or something, and I really don't think that would work.

* More importantly, A-Rod is kind of busy with his day job playing baseball for the New York Yankees for the next six (hopefully seven!) months. Besides, the idea that somebody who has never acted (his IMDB credits include things like being "Audience member" at the Super Bowl, and a deodorant commerical) would not only get to star in a movie, but film it during the regular season, is just ludicrous. Even if he wanted to do that, which is extremely doubtful, there is no way the Yankees would give him permission to do so.

* There's not a single on-the-record source; the piece is solely sourced by a "friend" (an imaginary friend?) of Cameron Diaz. And the unnamed reporter never bothered to even attempt to reach A-Rod or Diaz for comment.

You would think that this ridiculous story would stay in the realm of items you see in Weekly World News or something. But you would be wrong.

Google News shows that over 150 news outlets have picked up the story and rewritten it for their own papers and sites, including the New York Daily News, Huffington Post, the Washington Post website, MSNBC's Off The Bench website, and Business Insider. But not one of them have appeared to actually, you know, call either A-Rod or Diaz for confirmation, or do any original research, let along use a modicum of critical thinking. Guess they didn't want to wear out the old shoe leather.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Derek Jeter Biographer Ian O'Connor Defends His Subject -- Again

ESPN New York's Ian O'Connor has written yet another column lauding the merits of Derek Jeter, without bothering to mention that he has written an upcoming book on the Yankee captain with the cooperation of Jeter and his friends and family. That makes at least a half-dozen times since the fall that O'Connor has written such a pro-Jeter column without even a cursory disclaimer about the book.

And that's problematic, especially given that the book is billed as being written with inside access to the captain. O'Connor's publisher's blurb says that in the upcoming book "The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter" O’Connor" draws on extensive reporting and unique access to Jeter that has spanned some fifteen years." BN.com's promotion for the book says O'Connor "draws on unique access to Jeter and more than 200 new interviews."

I first wrote about this conflict of interest back in October, and then again in November (twice) and in December. And here we are in March, and O'Connor is still writing fawning articles about Jeter, without the simplest of disclaimers. Given that he has a financial stake in the subject, he should tell his readers about the book, and how he got inside access from Jeter for it.

O'Connor doesn't just write slobbering columns on the captain, but he has positioned those columns as being the inside view of Jeter. In one of them, he said Jeter wanted to play until 2017 (!) and that Jeter's trainer, Jason Riley claimed that "the desire to be the greatest can never be turned down by Father Time."

In another one last fall, O'Connor pushed for the Yankees to give Jeter a four-year, $23 million deal, saying those dollar figures would be "fair," and writing:

"There's no need to diminish him by demanding that he take a pay cut. If one athlete of this generation deserves to be overpaid, it's Jeter. A token, thanks-for-the-memories bump to $23 million would suffice.

There are a lot of pro-Jeter writers in this town, but nobody else in New York suggested such a ridiculous new contract for the captain.

O'Connor's most recent Jeter article says that he "desperately wants a dignified endgame to his career, and he knows that being a New York Yankees icon never guarantees you one." O'Connor also writes that "Jeter wasn't hurt so much by the tens of millions of dollars that the Yankees wouldn't give him. He was hurt by the public nature of the quarrel with his employer, and by the fact he was sucked into a swirling A-Rodian drama he couldn't control."  Well, is O'Connor speculating on the emotions here, or did Jeter tell him that's the way he felt? And if it's the latter, why did he share that with O'Connor? Is it because of the book?

Not to mention that O'Connor completely neglected to note that Jeter's agent Casey Close helped make this situation public, when he whined about being "baffled" by the Yankees stance, and compared his client to Babe Ruth. For some strange reason, that didn't make it into this article.

O'Connor also writes in the most recent piece that:

If he needs to be taken out of the leadoff spot and, ultimately, deposited near the bottom of the order, that will be a huge, franchise-rattling story. If he needs to be moved from shortstop to who knows where, the coverage of that demotion will be defined by an apocalyptic tone.

For now, Jeter is still Jeter, a future Hall of Famer who just needed some extra face time with the hitting coach, Kevin Long. With the contract done and the footwork adjusted, the smart money says the captain will make something of a comeback this year.

If Jeter needs to be moved down in the lineup, or switch positions, he will only have to do what every single superstar eventually faces. Is O'Connor suggesting that Jeter be held to a different standard?

I personally think Jeter will have a very good 2011 -- the anger over the contract talks this winter will motivate him, I think -- but this article is so filled with spin, it's like a washing machine or something. And you have to wonder if some of that spin is due to O'Connor's new book on Jeter.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Shocker! Pedro Martinez Admits to Being "Embarrassed" About What He Did to Don Zimmer

DVR Alert: I got an email today from MLB Network letting me know that Pedro Martinez is going to appear on Bob Costas' Studio 42 MLB Network Show next Wednesday, March 30, at 7 p.m. Eastern. And yes, I will be watching it!

While I hate what Martinez did to Don Zimmer, I also appreciate that Pedro has a quick wit and a real love for the game. Not only was Martinez one of the most exciting pitchers I ever watched, he also is smart and entertaining. I loved to hate him as a Red Sox, and grew to just like him when he was a Met. He was even fun to watch in the World Series as a Phillie, especially when he lost to the Yankees!

Anyhow, the MLB Network sent some of the quotes from the interview, and a link to a sneak peek of the show. He said that throwing Don Zimmer to the ground "was probably the only thing that I might be embarrassed" about for his career, that Grady Little deserves another shot at managing, and why Ted Williams' complimenting him at the 1999 All-Star Game meant more to him than winning the game's MVP that night. Here are some of the topics listed. Thanks again to the MLB Network for sending these quotes!

ON HIS ALTERCATION WITH DON ZIMMER DURING 2003 ALCS GAME THREE:
I think that’s probably the worst highlight that you could ever find about me. Everything else, I don’t mind. …But Don Zimmer was probably the only thing that I might be embarrassed [about] for the rest of my career.

ON BOSTON RED SOX MANAGER GRADY LITTLE LEAVING HIM IN TO PITCH DURING THE EIGHTH INNING OF 2003 ALCS GAME SEVEN:
I say he did what he felt was right for him to do. I would say that I still had stamina and I had good enough stuff to get them out. I would stick to that and I believe that. What you have to do is give those guys on the Yankees side credit for making it happen. I made some great pitches. I don’t think Grady has anything to be blamed for. As a matter of fact, Grady should be in the big leagues with a team, managing a team right now regardless of what happened that day.

ON WHETHER HE COULD PITCH IN 2011:
I’m not ruling it out, I’m leaving the door open but at the same time I’m really getting used to being with the family and getting comfortable. I’m not used to being at home yet, I’m still eager to move and step away from the house and all that, but at the same time my family’s becoming the number-one aspect in my life.

ON MEETING TED WILLIAMS AT THE 1999 ALL-STAR GAME AT FENWAY PARK:
It meant probably so much that I cannot even describe. And not only putting up a show, it was being called in by Ted Williams and autographing my program, and saying, “That was some of the best pitching performance I’ve ever seen.” Those were his words when he said that. He said, “You’re going to be a great one.” To me, that meant so much. Forget about the MVP trophy, it was what he said and what he wrote in that program that meant really a lot to me.

You know, I hope that in 20 years, they do an Old-Timers game with the Yankees and Red Sox of the early 2000s era facing off. Wouldn't that be fun to watch?

What do you think? Tell us about it!